Synopsis
In a near future, where robots and humans live side by side, SHRLK, a robot designed for reasoning, and his gruff human mechanic and roommate, Watson Pierce, help the cops solve crimes committed by and against robots.
The world changed when the Equitable Rights Act was passed. It ensured that Self-Sustained robots were afforded the same rights, protections, and representation as humans. The point was to make robots as close to human as possible, but the regulations that came with Act have just created a world of crumbling robots unable to fix themselves, waiting for obsolesce.
Watson Pierce is a weathered mechanic and war veteran coming to North Battery for a job. He is gifted, but he’s having a hard go of it after the death of his friend. He decides to answer an ad for a live-in mechanic to a Self-Sustaining robot with very particular demands.
SHRLK is an old Lab Kinetics Static Human Reasoning model. He was originally used for police interrogations but after being decommissioned because of the Equitable Rights Act, SHRLK scraped by for many years. SHRLK has finally found the perfect arrangement. He lives in the mechanical rooms of an apartment building where he has an extensive library, a sizable collection of spare parts, privacy, and freedom. All he needs now is a mechanic.
Everything changes when a pair of fresh-faced detectives from SHRLK’s old department come calling. They need his help with a murder suicide case. A man has been murdered by what looks like his personal robot, an old self-sustaining model nearing the end of its lifespan. The robot then plugged himself into a high voltage transformer in an act of apparent self-destruction. The police have said the robot killed his “owner”, writing his apology in gear oil, and then fried himself. Case closed. But the two young detectives don’t agree with the official line. As SHRLK and Watson follow the clues, nothing appears as it seems, leading them into the dark underbelly of robot and human relations and the corrupt business practices of North Battery.
Written in Rust has the charm of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes but with the adventure of Altered Carbon
Release date: June 27, 2023
Publisher: Libra Press
Print pages: 250
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